


Grey Intentions

by wickedtrue



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 18:00:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/956067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wickedtrue/pseuds/wickedtrue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>A video screen turns on.  Against a black background, there is the following white text:</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Excerpt of Maya Hansen interrogation </i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Date [REDACTED]</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Location [REDACTED] </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grey Intentions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hellkitty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellkitty/gifts).



> I was really excited to write this fic! I tried to give you something that was not black and white, and I hope you enjoy it!

A video screen turns on. Against a black background, there is the following white text:

_Excerpt of Maya Hansen interrogation_

_Date [REDACTED]_

_Location [REDACTED]_

 

Maya shrugs at the camera. Her handcuffs and ankle cuffs rattle where they are attached to the metal table and floor. There is blood on her face, a large gash patched with butterfly bandages at her temple. She is in hospital scrubs. The room behind her is bare.

"The virus was a life's work. I built it from over a decade of research. Industry standards changed dozens of times, new tech appeared, some worked, some failed." She lifts her hands in a gesture and her chains rattle again. The chains are too short, and her hands are stopped halfway. Maya sighs. "Is this really necessary?"

She makes a face above the camera's viewpoint; her interrogator’s questions are muffled and unintelligible through out the interview. "I am not dangerous until proven otherwise, thank you. I'm a doctor, not a terrorist."

"Now, wait a minute--" The chains stop her again when she starts to point a finger at her interrogator, just out of the view of the camera. She smacks her palms on the table instead. "I went to Tony Stark to try to fix this mess when I started to suspect something! I had no idea Killian was making my people into walking bombs! Why would he even do that? It made no logical sense; why would I think they were using my research in that way? I was trying to _help_ people, not hurt them more."

"Yes, yes, yes, the virus needed more work. That's why I was _with_ AIM. Their organization had the money, had the access to new technology that could improve the virus."

The video stutters and fast forwards.

Maya tries to cross her arms over her chest and is unable. A person crosses in front of the camera view and sits just off screen. 

"Yes," she admits tiredly. "I knew there were military implications for the Extremis virus. I knew military use was not only highly likely, but essentially a given once we realized how unstable the virus made individual test subjects. Subjects exhibited a sixty-eight percent increase in aggressive personality traits, almost an eighty percent increase in violent reactions to mild stimuli.”

She sighs at a question and slumps in her chair. “I have no idea if Extremis causes psychosis. I’ve told you again and again: Killian controlled my test subjects. All ex-military, either through loss of limb, other severe injuries, or they were dishonorably discharged for a variety of reasons. They were told repeatedly that this experiment could end their lives. They didn’t care. Violent killers that don’t care if they live or die, just want to be stronger? I think that hinders the neutral aspect of my sampling.”

The video stutters and fast forwards.

Maya is slumped further in her chair, picking at her chains. “Yeah, there were accidents.”

She glances up at the interviewer off-screen and rolls her eyes. “You have my notes. What more details do you want?”

She drops the chains with a clatter and sits up. “Fine. You want to know how we figured out that ODing on the viral load makes your skin melt off and your insides go BOOM?” She claps her hands right in the camera. “One of the early test subjects was dropped into the program by his buddies. IED shrapnel to the brain.” She points at her own head with her pointer finger and pretends to shoot herself. “He was just barely not a vegetable. Not a coma, technically. If you spoke to him and ordered him to feed himself, he could. He could breath on his own. No talking, no walking, no shitting outside of his hospital bed, but technically, not a coma. Technically, still a person. So his friends got him to sign some paperwork, and in he came. Made a full recovery of higher brain functions in six weeks.”

“Total asshole. He kept wanting to be stronger, be the best-- like the ability to be a human being again wasn’t enough. Kept getting his hands on more and more drugs, taking them on the sly. We weren’t monitoring them as aggressively until the first subject went nuclear. That’s when we found out he had pumped himself full of some shit we couldn’t even identify. He got so angry, he killed four of the other scientists on the project before he burned himself out and took out the entire facility. I was online the entire time, trying to talk him down. He had enough time to threaten me, my family, and my non-existent dog before he exploded into tiny asshole pieces.”

She raises one eyebrow at a muffled question. “I regret the loss of my colleagues. I found out afterward that the sergeant had been under investigation by the Army for the ‘use of inappropriate force’,” she uses air quotes around the technical term, “before he got his brain blown up. Apparently, he killed an extended family of about twenty-five Iraqis, mostly kids, before his platoon knocked him out. That’s the sort of people Killian had me saving. You can’t judge my work based on _them_.”

The video stutters and fast forwards.

Maya bangs her head on the table in frustration. “I went to Tony because I thought he could help. He’s _Iron Man._.”

The video stutters and fast forwards.

“I didn’t think anyone in the government would help me.”

The video stutters and fast forwards.

“I thought you suit shits would put me in jail. Why am I the bad guy for wanting to stay out of jail?!”

The video stutters and fast forwards.

“So what?!” Her chains rattle and the table shakes. “I asked for proper government funding, you didn’t give it! I found a way!”

The video stutters and fast forwards.

Maya is red in the face, pulling at her chains and cuffs. “ _\--I don’t give a flying fuck--!_ ”

The video stutters and fast forwards.

The chair is empty. There is a person in silhouette slumped just partially in view of the camera.

A hand picks up the camera and turns it. Maya looks back, up close and personal. The gash on her forehead, that appeared fresh at the beginning of the interview, has healed. Her eyes are bright golden and there is fresh blood on her face. She rubs at the blood on her cheek and spreads more into her wild hair.

“You know, I played nice. I hung out. I said, hey, maybe you guys can help me out. I mean, you fixed the whole ‘shot in the heart’ thing that Killian did.”

“Except, you set off the fail safe I installed, while you were trying to fix me and get all your answers. Altered, highly experimental Extremis," she taps the side of her neck, "dumped directly into my blood stream if my heart goes into cardiac arrest. No idea what it can do.” She smiles as she juggles the camera from one hand to the other. In the background, Shield agents litter the floor, bloodied and unmoving. “Well, I have an idea.”

“This is what I’m offering: you leave me alone, I leave you alone. Sound workable?”

She sets the camera down on the table and rotates it toward the carnage she has left behind. The Shield agent at the table has her head twisted at an awkward angle. 

“I don’t want to do any more of this. Don’t make me do this again.”

The video ends.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> My betas all asked me, "does Maya believe everything she is saying? Is she honestly cooperating or just biding her time?". And my answer was always ":D what do you think?!". 
> 
> I thought Maya was excellent in Iron Man 3 because it does go back and forth in the movie just how much she knew and was involved with Killian's plan. I wanted to keep giving her a questionable background and ending since the actress herself was so excited to play a that sort of character.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
